The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

From the author's website:  "It's always been just Kate and her mom--and now her mother is dying. Her last wish? To move back to her childhood home. So Kate's going to start at a new school with no friends, no other family and the fear her mother won't live past the fall.

Then she meets Henry. Dark. Tortured. And mesmerizing. He claims to be Hades, god of the Underworld--and if she accepts his bargain, he'll keep her mother alive while Kate tries to pass seven tests.

Kate is sure he's crazy--until she sees him bring a girl back from the dead. Now saving her mother seems crazily possible. If she succeeds, she'll become Henry's future bride, and a goddess.

If she fails..."

WARNING:  Spoilers contained within.

Interesting fact for you:  I'm a skimmer.  On my first go through, I read books really quickly and skim a lot.  This means that for this blog, I do a fair bit of rereading to make sure that I give books a fair review here rather than just thoughts on the parts of the book I managed to catch on my first read through.  Some books improve for this.  Others suffer.  A lot.  This is one of those books.  When I had first finished The Goddess Test, I was fairly sure I was going to give it a six or so.  Light fare, enjoyable, with very loose interpretations of mythology.  I had really skimmed it quite quickly, however, and I felt I must give it a better read.

Wow, I should never have done that.  What had been an enjoyable read because an eye-rolling exercise in anger.  The problem is related to the second interesting fact about myself -- I'm a huge mythology fan.  When I was younger, I'd read any book on mythology I could get.  That included a set of Encyclopedia Britannica that I'd pull out and cross-reference, happily reading about little know demigods and muses and prophets.  I enjoyed Greek mythology the best, but would dabble with Roman, Norse, Mayan, and Japanese mythology.  Frankly, The Goddess steps all over mythology like it is dirt, which made me want to weep.

Kate is a rather silly heroine.  She seems to have no friends or feelings about anything other than her mother.  Since she is close to her mother and her mother is dying, this seems somewhat explained, but it is still obnoxious and allows all of her time and energy to be wasted on Henry, a morose, sad sack of a hero, who angsts around his home with all his might.  When Henry basically attempts to bargain with Kate so that her mother can live for a while longer, Kate agrees and is forced to live as a horrible prisoner in a gorgeous home with a gorgeous guy who wants her to be his wife (she's sixteen, I think!) and she's forced to attend picnics and wear pretty clothing (which she sulks and sulks about).  Oh, and she's forced to study mythology.  She is also taking tests, but we, like Kate, are never aware when Kate is being tested, which is annoying and vague.

Luckily, Kate has several friends in the house, including one from her week or two in Eden -- Ava.  And Ava is where I go nuts with this book.  At one point, Ava sleeps with two different men in a very short period in the book.  This in a roundabout way leads to one of the men killing the other man.  At this point, these paragraphs happens:

"You didn't hack him into little pieces, but you're the reason it happened."  I stopped in front of the bed, running my fingers through my hair.  "Ella wants you gone.  Frankly, if all you're going to do is waste your time sleeping with every guy in the manor and acting like the world revolves around you, then so do I.  You're useless here.  The only things you've done are bicker with Ella and get Xander killed."

The moment I said it, I regretted it, but I couldn't take it back. It was the truth, or at least an exaggeration of it. But when I looked at Ava, I saw a scared girl who was my friend, not the heinous, selfish whore I'd painted her as. My stomach twisted, and guilt flooded through me so fast that I felt like I was choking.

Of course you feel guilt, Kate.  You just slut-shamed.  And it made me ashamed of you.  Ava's sin is to sleep with two guys ("EVERY GUY IN THE MANOR") within the same month.  One of them then forces the hand of the other to cause his own death.  How the hell is this Ava's fault?  It's not. 

Regardless, at the end of the book, we learn that Kate's tests are all related to the seven sins.  (Those Greek Gods are really big on the cardinal sins of the Catholic Church!)  But the tests are almost deemed unimportant, not being administered by anything besides fate (not the Fates, but just random pure luck), apparently, and rather nonsensical for the most part.  Also, why not call the book The Goddess Tests?

Did I like anything at all about this book, you're asking?  I liked that (spoiler) the gods totally portray a huge farce to test Kate.  That seems like something the Greek gods would do and they wouldn't be apologetic about it at all.  I liked that I didn't realize a lot of the mysteries of the book until the end.  I read a few reviews which stated that they were all over realizing everything like who the murdered in the book was, but I had no clue.  And I liked James.  <3 

I'm unsure if I'll read the next book in this series.  I did enjoy the book the first time I read it, but now I know it's not my favorite. 

Verdict:  4.  I really had a fight with myself over a four or a five, but ultimately went with a four  because while I did enjoy it on my first time through my second read through made me so damned angry.  I warn you to never read this carefully.

Thoughts:  Calliope?  Diana?  Really?  Why not just name all of your characters different mythological names which have nothing to do with their role?  It's a good thing that Kate is really dumb, or she might wonder if Calliope is the muse of poetry, which she is not.  This is so incredibly odd to me.  At least Diana could be considered a common enough name that this might occur, but Calliope is not exactly your every day name.  It's like having a book about Norse mythological characters and naming one of the characters Freyja and then not having the real Freyja in the book!

Also, why do the gods have nothing better to do that hang out at Henry's all the time?  One would think that administrating love, the sea, and travel would cause some busy times, but apparently not.  Also, why doesn't Apollo heal in this book at all?  It's always Hades or Zeus doing the healing.

Sixteen: Stories About That Sweet and Bitter Birthday edited by Megan McCafferty

From the Wayback Machine's crawl of Megan McCafferty's website: "Remember what it was like to be sixteen? Whether it was the year your teeth were finally free of braces or you were discovered by the opposite sex, that magical, mystical age is something you will never forget. Edited by Megan McCafferty, author of the runaway hit novels sloppy firsts and second helpings, SIXTEEN: Stories About That Sweet and Bitter Birthday is a compilation of short stories inspired by all the angst, melodrama, and wonderment of being sixteen.


Sarah Dessen's "Infinity" is about a girl confronting two major milestones: getting her driver's license and losing her virginity. The Dead Girls in Jacqueline Woodson's "Nebraska 99" have already done it and now must cope with being teenage mothers. And Carolyn Mackler's, "Mona Lisa, Jesus, Chad and Me" explores whether friendship can survive when prayer and partying clash. Also included is a new Jessica Darling story by Megan McCafferty about the last fifteen minutes Jessica spends--or rather, doesn't spend--with her best friend, Hope, who is leaving Pineville.


Also featuring stories by Steve Almond, M.T. Anderson, Julianna Baggott, Cat Bauer, Emma Forrest, Tanuja Desai Hidier, David Levithan, Sarah Mlynowski, Sonya Sones, Zoe Trope, Ned Vizzini and Joseph Weisberg, these hilarious, poignant and touching tales are perfect both for those who have yet to reach that milestone and those who want to reminisce about their "sweetest" year."

I spotted this sweet little polka-dotted book at the used bookstore the other day.  I noted the title, the editor (she wrote my beloved books Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings), and the copy included the words "hilarious and poignant".  What a lie.  If this book were more honest it would be "Well-written stories that will make you sad for the rest of the night and you'll lie on your bed and weep and despair through several of them."

Some of the stories, including Sarah Dessen's and Megan McCafferty's are actually quite good (and helped pulled the average of this book up from a 2).  They ring reminiscent of my sixteenth year when everything was overly melodramatic and you spent a great deal of time thinking about driving, sex, school, and friendships.  Others, like Sonya Sones's free verse story and Hidier's story of an Indian girl who falls in love with her best friend are interesting and contain both sad and happy elements.  They ring true to life for people in difficult or odd situations while containing an element of hope or love.  And, frankly, Sarah Mlynowski's "The Perfect Kiss" made me cheer for the heroine.

But, you'll notice I just listed fix stories I liked out of sixteen.  The other eleven just made me want to curl up and give up.  Woodson's story "Nebraska 99", in particular, left me feeling hopeless and out of sorts and miserable.  This does speak to the power of the writing, but it doesn't particularly leave me wanting more.

Again, I can't give this book too low a score.  It contains many well-written stories.  It contains several stories that I loved.  It dealt very well with a range of teens by including different characters of different ethnicity, genders, and sexuality.  But, and this is a big but, I just couldn't enjoy the book.  It was like kale.  I know I'm supposed to like kale because it is some kind of super food that is good for me and I admire it in principle, but I hate to actually eat it.  I know this book is good, but I hate to read it.

Verdict:  4.  I'm unspeakably depressed after having finished this collection.  Everything sucks at sixteen, everything.  I know I enjoyed that year, but clearly no one else on Earth did.

Thoughts:  The ratio of depressing to empowering was way too high for a book about sixteenth birthdays.  Seriously, the story about the girls who were pregnant teenagers made me want to lay down and weep.  Powerful, but not my cup of tea when I expect "hilarious, poignant, and touching tales".

A Quick Review: Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner

From the author's website:  "The war between humanity and Faerie devastated both sides. Or so fifteen-year-old Liza has been told. Nothing has been seen or heard from Faerie since, and Liza's world bears the scars of its encounter with magic. Corn resists being harvested; dandelions have thorns. Trees move with sinister intention, and the town Liza calls home is surrounded by a forest that threatens to harm all those who wander into it. Still Liza feels safe. Her father is strong and has protected their town by laying down strict rules. Among them: Any trace of magic must be destroyed, no matter where it is found.


Then Liza's sister is born with faerie-pale hair, clear as glass, and Liza's father leaves the baby on a hillside to die. When her mother disappears into the forest and Liza herself discovers she has the faerie ability to see--into the past, into the future--she has no choice but to flee. Liza's quest will take her into Faerie and back again, and what she finds along the way may be the key to healing both worlds."

This super fast read was pretty middle of the road.  I liked aspects of it, such as the world building and the supporting characters to Liza, but I never found myself getting fully immersed in the story.  I think part of the problem is that you come into the story without getting any time to get to know the main character before grand sweeping changes come into her world, and it's not handled well.  I never felt I really knew Liza and that made for a disconnect with her quest to find her mother.  I certainly think that this book was adequately written, but it just was not for me.

Verdict:  4.  Didn't mind reading it, but I'll never pick it up again for fun.

Thoughts:  I actually liked the werewolf in this book.  That never happens since I generally hate any type of shape shifter in any book whatsoever.  Good on you, author.  That and the inclusion of the cat bumped the grade of the book up a notch!

Fallen by Lauren Kate

From the author's website: "There’s something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori.

Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price’s attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah, Georgia. He’s the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move.

Even though Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce–and goes out of his way to make that very clear–she can’t let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, she has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret . . . even if it kills her."

After reading a few fairly negative reviews of Fallen, including one from a blogger I trust,  I was remarkably hesitant to read this novel. I wavered back and forth, back and forth. Did I want to read a novel that was receiving good reviews from people who mostly loved fated love and Twilight? The answer was no for a long time, and then I spotted it in my library and I couldn't resist that cover. God must really love his angels because he makes sure their books look the prettiest, even if the angels are fallen!

I started the book the day I got it and finished it rather quickly, perhaps several hours later. And my immediate reaction was, "Well, besides Luce and Daniel being kind of boring, that wasn't so bad. I don't know why it got such bad reviews." Then, I took the time to think about it, and here's why I think it got bad reviews.

Let's face it, Luce and Daniel are boring and that makes their romance kind of boring too. Besides being good looking and mysterious, what does Daniel got going for him? He both growls and stares at Luce in meaningful ways. He is mean to her, but also sweet to her. He's basically Edward Cullen in angel form, and I didn't like Edward Cullen either. (To be fair to Edward, Daniel isn't half so interesting as he never, not once, plays vampiric baseball, which is my favorite WTF moment from the first Twilight novel.)

The main villain of the novel is barely fleshed out, and the motivations behind the villainy are not explained in any meaningful way. They never explain why all these angels are hanging out at a reform school since they don't appear to expect the main character to show. Do angels just like hanging at reform schools?

The climax is rather a let down, and I think I'm growing to hate badly done love triangles. (Ask me how I feel about a good love triangle in which the guy I like wins or in which I like both guys and I'll give you a completely different answer.)

So, why the verdict of a four then, I'm sure you're asking. Because it has two redeeming characters who I very very quickly grew to love. Arianne and Penn. Those two characters are the reason I'll probably read Torment. (That, and the cover. Again, pretty.) Both of these friends of Luce made me interested in what was happening and what they were doing. The moment Arianne commanded Luce to chop her hair, I think I fell a bit in love with her. Why did Luce cut her hair? Because she was forced to, due to the 'incident'. Why did Arianne? Because she's got a will of iron and a strange impulsive nature! However, even better than Arianne, was poor poor Penn.

Penn deserved to be the real star of this show. She was odd, sneaky, an interesting friend, and not very impressed with the people at the school with her. Her back story gave her an interesting reason for being at the school, unlike ANY ONE else in the book. She stole every scene she was in with Luce.

In fact, trying to remember this book that I read over three weeks ago, the scenes I remember most clearly are those with Arianne, Penn, or Cam, and that's because they were the most interesting and most memorable scenes.

I am betting I'll read the second book in the series, but I'm hoping that Daniel and Luce get personality transplants between the books.

Verdict: 4.  Thinking about it and discounting Penn and Arianne, I wanted to punch every one of the characters.  Well, and besides Cam.  I'd totally make out with him before punching him.

Thoughts: No, seriously. Angel covers? The prettiest. I have read hideous reviews of Hush, Hush, but would I turn it down if I saw it at the library?  No. In fact, I want to buy these just to have them to be pretty on my bookshelf. I have the same problem with the Luxe series (especially Rumors) that is gorgeous, but rather boring.